Speech Assessment Tommorrow - What to expect?

[Guest guest]

My son is 21 months old, and were going in for his speech assessment

tommorrow morning...

At 21 months he has almost NO vocal language (he says mom

occasionally and that is IT), however he is very good at

communicating non-verbally (pointing, gestures ets). He also is

VERY good at understanding things (we will give him complex

instructions and he will follow them... beyond what i would expect a

baby his age to understand...)

Its for this reason taht were not too concerned about the vocal

delay, as its clear he understands and he still manages to

communicate... so were pretty confident he will catch up at his own

pace.

My question is what do they do with kids his age to assess their

speech???

it seems like a strange thing to test in a baby...

[Guest guest]

i'm glad you asked that question. i am a speech pathologist, specializing in kids 0-5. it's not at all unusual to test a "baby";s speech. we have lots of different tests to use, depending on the function level of the kiddo. He/she should be looking not only at what your sonis able to understand but what he is able to express verbally. i frequently see kids who can understand lots of things but can't effectively get their message across. Believe me, that IS a problem. Also, the SLP will be looking at his oral motor function (how do the muscles of his mouth and vocal cords work, and do they work well together?) as well as his ability to produce speech sounds. Is swallowing an issue? they need to address that too.

okay, just a few thoughts for you. Let us know how it progresses.

ruth

mom to Mitch and Lexi, both mito affected and my treasures